The Star Crossed Lovers
by VitaMilla
Summary: Clary Fray has spent her entire life trying to protect her little sister, Emma. But there's one thing she can't protect her from... When Clary is brought to the capitol to fight for life or death, she finds that there's a certain golden boy that messes it all up, but you have to be blind to not realize that Jace may be her way to victory. Based on The Hunger Games novel.
1. The Reaping

My fingers grope for Emma's warmth beside me on the mattress, but I find nothing there. Of course, she must have crawled to mother for comfort. After all, it's reaping day today. I give Emma a ghostly kiss on her forehead and take a look at mother. She looks so much younger in her sleep, rumor has it that she was very beautiful in her days but the hard life in the Seam must have brought the beauty out of her. I go downstairs and put my hunting boots on and my father's old hunting jacket, braid my hair and tuck it inside my jacket. When I reach the door I hear Buttercup hiss at me.

"I'll still cook you," I say and hiss back at him. This is the closest that ugly cat and I get to 'love'.

I make my way through the fence and read the sign 'No Trespassing' that's new, they mus have just put it up there. In the woods waits my best friend Simon, the only one I can be myself with.

"Hey, Clare," he says. "Look what I got," He says and holds a piece of fine bread with an arrow through it.

"Where did you get that? Fine bread? Must have cost you quite a bit!" This bread isn't something we can make in our dusty kitchens, this is fine bread from the bakery.

"Costed me 2 squirrels, better be good!" We both sit down on the hill and enjoy a piece of bread each with some berries that we plucked from the bushes in the woods.

"Happy Hunger Games," Simon says and throws a blackberry in my direction. I catch the blackberry in my mouth and crush its fragile skin between my teethes before replying to Simon.

"And may the odds be ever in your favor," I say. Everyone are scared this morning, fearing that their child will get picked. We have t joke about it just to show ourselves that there's nothing to worry about. But there is.

"How many tickets do you have this year?" I ask Simon.

"42," he simply replies. You can participate with an extra ticket for each of your family member including yourself in exchange for some grain and oil. Simon and I have done it every year. I for Emma, mother and myself and Simon for his 3 younger siblings, his mother and himself.

"We could do it, you know," Simon says suddenly.

"Do what?" Although I'm fairly sure where he's getting at.

"Run away. Just me and you and our families, we can do it."

"We wouldn't make it 5 miles," I argue.

"No, I'd get 5 miles!" He's so stubborn and sometimes I have to remind myself that that's one of the reasons he's my best friend.

Run away? This conversation is heading to the wrong direction. There is no way I'm running away and risking the peacekeepers coming after us. I even tried bringing Emma to the woods once and it ended up in a disaster. When I shot a deer she started crying and saying that if we took it home soon enough we could save the animal. Even though she gladly eats the meat that I bring home she still can't stand the look of a hurt animal. Simon and I hunt a while more after eating up our breakfast and then pluck some more berries. We pluck some extra more strawberries for the mayor, he's very fond of them.

* * *

><p>Simon and I reach the front porch of the mayor's house and knock. Isabelle, the mayors daughter opens the door.<p>

"Hi Clary!" She's always happy and friendly to everyone, unlike me who's mean to everyone I don't know.

"Hi Isabelle! I like that pin of yours," I say. Isabelle wears a golden pin with a bird in it, only the bird's wings touch the circle surrounding the bird. A pin like that could feed an entire family for a month.

"Thanks, who doesn't want to look impressive when heading to the capitol."

Gale looks at her, confused. Then he seems to understand that she's joking. "You're not going to the capitol," he says but what he says next horrifies me.  
>"How many tickets do you have this year? 5? I had 12 when I was 12." He's lucky that Isabelle isn't the kind of girl who'd run straight to the mayor complaining about Simon's bad manners, she's the forgiving type, unlike me.<p>

"Simon! Forgive us, Isabelle. Good luck." I say.

"You too, Clary." She looks at Simon and adds "Simon." before closing the door.

"We didn't sell the strawberries," Simon says nodding towards the filled bucket in my hand.

"Yeah, thanks to you. We'll just have to come back in the evening." I say to Simon.

"Yeah, if we can avoid another year from The Hunger Games," he mutters.

* * *

><p>"Look at you, how beautiful," I say and look at Emma. She's wearing a blouse and a skirt, the same clothes that I had for y first reaping. I walk towards her and stroke her blonde hair away from her bright blue eyes. We're so different, she's more like our father, blonde hair and blue eyes. Whereas I'm a copy of my mother, so I've been told. Bright green eyes, emerald, and red fiery hair that I have to tame every morning.<p>

"Let's tuck in that tail, little duck," i say laughing while I tuck in the piece of blouse that's sticking out of her skirt.

she laughs. "Quack quack," She says, giggling.

"Let's make you beautiful too," mother says behind my back. After father's death I've pushed away everyone besides Emma and Simon. I refused my mother's help all the time, fearing that she'd shut off like she did during several weeks after father's death, leaving her children turning into skin and bone. sooner or later I have to let her in, I know that.

"Okay," I say without thinking. A day like this no one wants to be left alone. I know that from experience.

Mother makes a bath for me and I take a quick one. I go out for some air waiting till my hair dries before going back in. I look at my bed and see that mother has laid one of her beautiful dresses from her time as a pharmacy daughter. It's the one with a silk collar, the one I like so much. Mother is very careful with her dresses because they mean much to her so I'm surprised that she lets me wear one for the reaping.

"Are you sure?" i ask hesitantly.

"Yes, Clary. I'd be more than glad seeing that dress on you."

* * *

><p>We eat a little from the food I got with me from the hunting this morning and then slowly make our way towards the square.<p>

"Clary? i'm scared," Emma says when she sees all the people that waits in the square.

"Emma, it's your first year participating in the reaping. You only have one ticket in there, one among thousands," I assure her. She hugs me and we keep walking. We split up to stand in our line, everybody gets divided into lines depending on their age. I try to make myself taller and find Simon. As I do so we get eye contact and he mouths 'It's going to be okay' to me. I nod and get back to watch at the stage.

Amatis Graymark, a colorful woman with wigs and costumes made of glitter gets up on the podium and starts the reaping.

"Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in you favor," She says like this is some kind of festival that we should be glad over. As usually she starts with "Ladies first," and goes to the huge bowl with all the girl's tickets. She picks up a ticket and goes back to the microphone. I only think _not me, not me, not me, _in my head. It's not me It's...

"Emma Fairchild."

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! This is my very first fan fiction and I hope that you like the first chapter! The following chapters will hopefully be longer and more interesting! I really hope that you guys will leave a review and tell me what you think. I'm currently writing the next chapter and hopefully it will be up soon, very soon!<strong>


	2. Unfortunate Twice

One time I was sitting in a hide in a tree and waited motionless for prey. I fell asleep and fell three meters straight down into the ground, where I landed on my back. It was as if the force of the impact pushed the air out of my lungs. I lay motionless behind and had to force myself to breathe in, breathe out, to do anything at all.

I feel the same now. I can't move and can't make a sound. The name echoes inside my head while I'm trying to remember how to breathe. Someone is holding my hand, a boy from the seam, I think. Maybe I had been about to fall down, and he supported me.

There must be a mistake. This can not happen. Emma was a lot from the many thousands! The risk that she would be selected was so minimal that I had not even bothered to worry about her. Had I not done all I could? A ticket. A ticket among all the thousand. The odds had been really beneficial for her. But what good did it?

Somewhere in the distance I hear the crowd murmuring unfortunate, as they always do when a twelve year-old gets selected, for all think it's so unfair. And then I caught sight of her. White face and hands tightly tied along side she goes with small, stiff steps towards the stage and I see that the blouse has slipped out of her skirt again. When I notice that detail, that's when I snap back to reality.

"Emma!" The stifled scream rips itself out of my throat, and my muscles begin to work again. "Emma!" I don't need to push my way through the crowd. I reach up to her the moment she is about to board the stairs. With a sweeping motion, I shove her behind me.

"I volunteer as a tribute!" I pant. "I volunteer to the reaping!"

"Well, well. Wonderful! Come here," Amatis says gesturing to me to come forward.

"No, no Clary! You can't go!" Prim's screams are loud and filled with tears. The peacekeepers take her away and I board the stairs.

"And what's your name?" Amatis happily asks.

"Clarissa Fairchild," I say hoarsely.

"Well I bet my hat that that was your sister, wasn't it? She can't steal all the glory, of course. Let's give a round of applause for our newest tribute!"

Nobody in district 12 applause, instead they give me the bravest form of displeasure they dare to. Silence. With their silence they say that they don't want to be a part of all this, that this is wrong.

Then something unexpectedly happens. One by one the lift 3 fingers on their left hand to their mouth and starches it out to me. It's an old gesture you do at funerals in District 12 when you take goodbye of someone you loved. Now I'm really starting to cry here. Suddenly I'm happy that I didn't run away like Simon suggested, who else would've taken Emma's place at the reaping?

"What an exciting day!" Amatis trills. "Now, for the boys!"

I don't even have time to hope it's not Simon until she says the name. "Jonathan Christopher Herondale." Oh no, I think. Because I know that name., even if I've never spoken to Jonathan Christopher Herondale. I watch Jonathan as he takes slow firm steps towards the scene. Hes tall, has a muscular built and has golden hair that falls in waves over his forehead. I see that he's chocked. He tries to act indifferent but in his golden eyes I see the fear I so many times have seen in the eyes of chased animals. After Amatis asks if there's anyone willing to take his place, but no one volunteers. I know that he has an elder brother who just turned 18 but he doesn't volunteer, it's what happens. Even the strong bonds of family love isn't enough on reaper day. What I did was revolutionary.

* * *

><p>After the reaping the peacekeepers show us the way to a room where we get to say goodbye to our families and friends. The first visitors I get is my mother and Emma.<p>

"Clary!" Emma cries out and runs to hug me. I hug her back and feel a single tear roll down my cheek.

"Listen, Emma. You're not allowed to take any extra tickets in exchange for grain and oil. If you think this through you can survive on milk and cheese from your goat. Simon will bring you game and other things you need. Give him something in exchange some milk or cheese, even if hr refuses, okay?"

"Okay," Emma says with her tiny voice of a 12-year-old. Then I go to mother.

"Listen," I say, looking in her eyes. "You can't shut off, not like last time! I won't be there to help and feed both of you. You need to pay attention and not leave everything on Emma's diluting shoulders!" I've started to cream now and I can see the fear and tears in my mothers eyes from my raised voice. "Don't cry, don't," I say and hug her.

"Oh Clarissa, my sweet little girl. So grown up you've become."

"I'll be okay, Clary," Emma says. I walk to her. "Maybe you even can win, you're so strong and good at hunting."

"Maybe I can," I say and kiss Emma's forehead. "Then we'll be as rich as Luke Garroway." Ugh, yes, that man is damn rich but his personality stinks. He drinks all the time and prepares District 12's tributes for the Hunger Games.

"I don't care as long as you're safe, please promise to win," Emma says. I hug her.

"I promise," I say to Emma. I feel my mother come behind me and hug us. We stay like that until a peacekeeper comes and separates us.

"I love you," I scream to them before the doors shut.

My next visitor is Simon.

"Simon Lewis, my savior in need," I joke as he enters the room.

"Clare, don't joke, okay?" Simon says and opens his arms wide to me to hug. I don't hesitate before stepping into his embrace.

"Oh Simon. How am I supposed to make through this?"

"Look, Clary. You'll be fine. Just get to a bow and arrow, if there is none, you make one. This is only a type of hunting and you're the best hunter I know." He says seriously.

"It's different! They will be armed, they have had a lot of training and the boys and half the girls will be twice as big as me!"

"You know how to kill!" He argues.

"Animals," I whisper. The bare thought of piercing a human with one of my arrows makes me want to vomit.

"Is it really that much of a difference?" He asks with concern.

"Okay," I promise. The peacekeepers come after Simon far too early and I scream for more time but they wont let him stay.

My next visitor is unexpected. Isabelle.

"Oh Clary! You need to bring a token from your district to the games, everyone has it! Here take this one, I know that you like it!" Isabelle says and hands me her golden bird pin that she wore this morning on her beautiful dress.

"Your pin? I can't." I say.

"Nonsense! It's a gift!" She says and comes around the table and fastens the pin on my mother's dress. "There you go. Beautiful" She seems so excited and I don't understand. Isabelle gives me another gift, a quick kiss on my cheek. Then she hugs me and bounces away out through the door.

The person that comes next takes me off guard. I didn't expect anyone more to come and visit me but through the door the baker Stephen Herondale, Jonathan's father comes in. He sits across the table and lays a white box on the table.

"A gift for you," he says. I reach for the box and open it. Inside it lays those creamy cookies that my family can't afford. It's the type of cookies that has all those colorful frosting on it.

"Thank you, very much," I say awkwardly. Then the baker just sits across from me until a peacekeeper comes to take him away.

As he stands he turns around facing me. "I'll take care of the little girl." Those words lift some of the stones that has settled on the bottom of my stomach. People can put up with me, but they absolutely adore Emma.

After the baker leaves I sit for a while until the peacekeepers come to get me. They lead me out of the building and shove me into a car. Right after me comes Jonathan and sits beside me. I'm squished between Amatis Graymark and Jonathan Christopher Herondale. I don't like it. It's the first time I'm in a car and I must say that I enjoy the ride, minus Jonathan and Amatis company.

When we arrive the door opens on both sides of us and Amatis gets out of the car before firmly closing the door right in front of my nose. I turn to Jonathan and gesture to him to get out, so he does. He gets out and hold a hand outstretched to me to take. I make a quick, silent debate in my head. I can either take his hand and accept his kindness or I can coldly ignore it, ignore him. I'm about to refuse his offer and go for the latter as I stand up. But as I do so I stumble and fall right into his embrace.  
>So much for that...<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Here you go! Chapter 2 of 'The Star Crossed Lovers'. I really worked hard on this one and hope that people enjoy reading this. You're welcome to drop some comments or feedback in a review!<strong>


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